INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK

OF THE

PROPHET JOE L.

JOEL, the son of Pethuel, the second of the twelve minor prophets, was, as is said, of the tribe of Reuben, and city of Bethoran; or rather Betharan, for Bethoran was on this side Jordan, in the tribe of Ephraim, and Betharan was on the other side of the river, in the tribe of Reuben. Joel prophesied in the kingdom of Judah; and it is the opinion of some critics that he did not appear there till after the removal of the ten tribes and the destruction of the kingdom of Israel. We do not know distinctly the year wherein he began to prophesy, nor that in which he died. He speaks of a great famine, and an inundation of locusts, which ravaged Judea; but as these are evils not uncommon in that country, and all sorts of events have not been registered in history, we can infer nothing from thence towards fixing the particular period of Joel's prophecy.

St. Jerome, followed by many others, both ancients and moderns, believed Joel to have been contemporary with Hosea, according to this rule laid down by him, that when there is no certain proof of the time wherein any prophet lived, we are to be directed in our conjectures by the time of the preceding prophet, whose epoch is better known. But this rule is not always certain, and should not hinder us from following another system, if we have good reason for doing so. The Hebrews maintain that Joel prophesied under Manasseh; and as collateral circumstances seem to preponderate in favour of this hypothesis, it has been accordingly followed in the margin. Under the idea of an enemy's army, the prophet represents a cloud of locusts, which in his time fell upon Judea, and caused great desolation. This, together with the caterpillars, and the drought, brought a terrible famine upon the land. God, being moved with the calamities and prayers of his people, scattered the locusts, and the wind blew them into the sea. These misfortunes were succeeded by plenty and fertility. After this, the prophet foretold the day of the Lord, and the vengeance he was to exercise in the valley of Jezreel. He speaks of the teacher of righteousness, whom God was to send; and of the Holy Spirit, which was to descend upon all flesh. He says that Jerusalem will be inhabited for ever; that salvation will come out from thence; and that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. All this relates to the new covenant, and the time of the Messiah. See Calmet..

Bishop Lowth observes that "the style of Joel differs much from that of Hosea; but, though of a different kind, is equally poetical. It is elegant, perspicuous, clear, diffusive, and flowing; and, at the same time, very sublime, nervous, and animated. He displays the whole power of poetic description in the first and second chapters; and, at the same time, his fondness for metaphors, comparisons, and allegories; nor is the connection of his subjects less remarkable than the graces of his diction. It is not to be denied that in some places he is very obscure; which every attentive reader will perceive, especially in the end of this prophecy." Præl. xxi.; and see Dodd. The two first chapters are inimitably beautiful; and the language, in force, and often in sound, well adapted to the subject. See the note on ver. 1.

THE BOOK

OF THE

PROPHET JOEL.

Chronological Notes relative to the commencement of Joel's prophesying, upon the supposition that this event took place about six hundred and ninety years before the commencement of the Christian era.

Year from the Creation, according to Archbisop Usher, 3314.-Year of the Julian Period, 4024.-Year since the Flood, 1658.-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 322.-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 285.-Year since the extinction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 31.-Third year of the twenty-second Olympiad.Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 64.-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 690.-Cycle of the Sun, 20.-Cycle of the Moon, 15.-Third year of Eryxias, the last decennial archon of the Athenians.-First year of Anaxidamus, king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Proclide.-Thirty-fifth year of Eurycrates I., king of Lacedæmon, of the family of the Eurysthenidæ.-Eleventh year of Deioces, the first king of the Medes.Fortieth year of Perdiccas I., king of Macedon. Twenty-ninth year of Gyges, king of Lydia.-Ninth year of Manasseh, king of Judah

CHAPTER I.

The con

This and the beginning of the next chapter contain a double prophecy, applicable in its primary sense to a plague of locusts which was to devour the land, and to be accompanied with a severe drought and famine; and in its secondary sense it denotes the Chaldean invasion. Both senses must be admitted: for some of the expressions will apply only to the dearth by insects; others to the desolation by war. texture of both is beautiful and well conducted. In this chapter the distress of every order of people is strongly painted; and not only does the face of nature languish when the God of nature is displeased, 1–19; but the very beasts of the field, by a bold figure, are represented as supplicating God in their distress, and reproaching the stupidity of man, 20.

his conversion, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 13; that is, some time from before Christ 697 to (suppose) 660.

Verse 2. Yeold men] Instead of Dapin hazzekenim, old men, a few MSS. have ɔn' haccohanim, ye priests, but improperly.

Verse 1. The word of the Lord that came to Joel] See the introduction for some account of this prophet, whose history is very obscure. Bishop Newcome thinks that he prophesied while the kingdom of Judah subsisted, and refers to chap. ii. 1, 15, (see also chap. Hath this been in your days] He begins very abi. 14, and the note there,) but not long before its sub-ruptly; and before he proposes his subject, excites version; as his words, chap. iii. 1, seem to imply that its captivity was approaching. See 2 Kings xxi. 10-15. He therefore favours the conjecture of Drusius, that this prophet lived under Manasseh, and before

attention and alarm by intimating that he is about to announce disastrous events, such as the oldest man among them has never seen, nor any of them learnt from the histories of ancient times.

A prediction of the ruin

B. C. cir. 690.

Ol. cir. XXII. 3.

B. C. cir. 690.

Ol. cir. XXII. 3.
Numa Pompilii,

A. M. cir. 3314. 3 b Tell ye your children of it, |ed my fig tree: he hath made A. M. cir. 3314. and let your children tell their it clean bare, and cast it away; children, and their children ano- the branches thereof are made R. Roman., ther generation. white.

Numa Pompilii,
R. Roman.,

d

cir. annum 26. 4 That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten ; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.

e

5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. 6 For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheekteeth of a great lion.

cir. annum 26

8 Lament like a virgin girded with sack cloth for the husband of her youth.

9 m The meat-offering and the drinkoffering is cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests, the LORD's ministers, mourn.

7 He hath 1 laid my vine waste, and i bark- field is perished.

Psa. Ixxviii. 4. -e Deut. xxviii. 38; chap. ii. 25. Heb. The residue of the palmèrworm.---e Isa. xxxii. 10.- So Prov. Xxx. 25, 26, 27; chap. ii, 2, 11, 25.-- - Rev. ix. 8. b. Isa. v. 6.

·Verse 3. Tell ye your children of it] To heighten the effect, he still conceals the subject, and informs them that it is such as should be handed down from father to son through all generations.

Verse 4. That which the palmerworm hath left] Here he begins to open his message, and the words he chooses show that he is going to announce a devastation of the land by locusts, and a famine consequent on their depredations. What the different insects may be which he specifies is not easy to determine. I shall give the words of the original, with their etymology.

The palmerworm, Dia gazam, from the same root, to cut short; probably the caterpillar, or some such blight, from its cutting the leaves of the trees into pieces for its nourishment.

The locust, arbeh, from n rabah, to multiply, from the immense increase and multitude of this insect.

Cankerworm, p yelek, from p lak, to lick or lap with the tongue; the reference is uncertain.

Heb. laid my fig tree for a barking. Isa. xxii. 12. Prov. ii. 17; Jer. iii. 4.- m Ver. 13; chap. if. 14. Jer. xii. 11; xiv, 2.- - Isa. xxiv. 7; ver. 12.- -P Or, ashamed.- - Jer. xiv. 3, 4.

Verse 6: A nation is come up upon my land] That real locusts are intended there can be little doubt; but it is thought that this may be a double prophecy, and that the destruction by the Chaldeans may also be intended, and that the four kinds of locust mentioned above may mean the four several attacks made on Judea by them. The first in the last year of Nabonassar, (father of Nebuchadnezzar,) which was the third of Jehoiakim; the second when Jehoiakim was taken prisoner in the eleventh year of his reign; the third in the ninth year of Zedekiah; and the fourth three years after, when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. Others say that they mean four powers which have been enemies of the Jews: 1. The palmerworm, the Assyrians and Chaldeans. 2. The locust, the Persians and Medes. 3. The cankerworm, the Greeks, and particularly Antiochus Epiphanes. 4. The caterpillar, the Romans. Others make them four kings; Tiglath-pileser, Shalmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar. But of such similitudes there is no end; and the best of them is arbitrary and precarious.

Caterpillar, on chasil, from on chasal, to consume, to eat up; the consumer. Bishop Newcome translates Verse 7. He hath laid my vine waste] The locusts the first, grasshopper; the second, locust; the third, have eaten off both leaves and bark, noun qun chasoph devouring locust; and the fourth, consuming locust. chasaphah, he hath made it clean bare; 110 After all that has been said by interpreters concerning suddad sadeh, the field is laid waste, ver. 10; and these four animals, I am fully of opinion that the arbeh, kesod mishshaddai, a destruction from the or locust himself, is the gazam, the yelek, and the chasil; and that these different names are used here by the prophet to point out the locust in its 'different states, or progress from embryo to full growth. See the note on chap. ii. 2.

Verse 5. Awake, ye drunkards] The general destruction of vegetation by these devouring creatures has totally prevented both harvest and vintage; so that there shall not be wine even for necessary uses, much less for the purposes of debauchery. It is well known that the ruin among the vines by locusts prevents the vintage for several years after.

Almighty, ver. 15; are all paronomasias in which this prophet seems to delight.

Verse 8. Lament like a virgin-for the husband of her youth.] Virgin is a very improper version here. The original is in bethulah, which signifies a young woman or bride; not a virgin, the proper Hebrew for which is hy almah, See the notes on Isa. vii. 14, and Matt. i. 23.

Verse 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off] The crops and the vines being destroyed by the locusts, the total devastation in plants, trees, corn, &c., is referred to and described with a striking

12 The vine is dried up, 16 Is not the meat cut off beand the fig tree languisheth, the fore our eyes, yea, joy and pomegranate tree, the palm tree gladness from the house of our cir. annum 26. also, and the apple tree, even all God? the trees of the field, are withered because joy is withered away from the sons of

19. O LORD, to thee will I cry for the 14 Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn as- fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilsembly, gather the elders and all the inhabit-derness, and the flame hath burned all the trees ants of the land into the house of the LORD of the field. your God, and cry unto the LORD.

variety of expression in this and the following think that the neighing of horses, or braying of asses, is wonderfully expressed by the sound of the original: Verse 12. The vine is dried up] Dr. Shaw ob- INI AD mah NEENCHAH behemah, how do the serves that in Barbary, in the month of June, the horses neigh! how do the asses bray! behemah locusts collect themselves into compact bodies a fur- is a collective name for all domestic cattle, and those long or more square, and march on, eating up every used in husbandry. thing that is green or juicy, and letting nothing escape them, whether vegetables or trees.

Verse 18. How do the beasts groan!] I really the same reading.